Pakistan air crash – all 152 passengers dead

28 July 2010

A passenger plane carrying 152 people has crashed in dense forest on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital Islamabad. No survivors have been found, whilst a number of bodies have been recovered, some still on fire.

The plane, a domestic flight from Karachi operated by the private company Airblue, came down in hills just north of the city as it was about to land.

There is no word on the cause of the crash, but the area was covered in thick fog at the time.

“The air was heavy with a deathly smell of petrol, smoke and charred flesh,” said one of the resucers.

The plane, reported to be an Airbus A321 with 146 passengers and six crew on board, is thought to have left Karachi at 07:50 local time (03:50 GMT).

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Airblue is the largest of Pakistan’s private airlines. The company and civil aviation officials say there was nothing in conversations between the pilot and the Islamabad control tower that suggests anything was wrong.

Two Americans were among the victims, a US embassy spokesman said.

Pakistan’s interior ministry initially said at least five survivors had been taken to hospital, but local officials later said that those reports were wrong. The flight data recorder has been found.

Recovery operations are being hampered by bad weather and the crash site, on a steep hill, has no roads.

Among the people aboard the plane were 20 women and five children, said the Airblue airliner.